1 week, 5 shows to go!

Last night we had our "hottest" performance yet. Due to forces beyond our comprehension, the venue of our performance in Trissur was changed at the last minute - to the studio theater at the School of Drama at the University of Calicut. We had been teaching a workshop there for two days and I honestly couldn't imagine how they would make it ready for performance in time - but, they did! The students from the workshop worked like crazy- hanging lights, curtains, cleaning the backstage areas, making makeup and dressing rooms. My favorite part was the candles lit everywhere. Beautiful. The space has openings on all sides, surrounded by jungle. They hung up a curtain across the back of the stage, but other than that, it was open air. While we we're warming up, a frog jumped across the stage. :) And with lights, it was like dancing in a sauna - with a packed house.

It is mystery to me how they got the word out about the change in venue, but it was literally shoulder to shoulder. We could see the audience's faces throughout, and we danced up to within two feet of the front row. And they were right there with us the whole time. The is nothing like really sharing space with the audience. One of the staff people from our hotel came to the performance, turns out he's quite the scholar - well-read in both ancient and modern literature, and a visual artist himself. And two theater artists from Chile and Brazil came as well. The MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) who had co-sponsored us here and who helped arrange one of our workshops (that Mila will be writing about, and maybe me too in a separate post) was also there.

Today we're getting a nice, late start to the Cochin airport to take off for Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, we've just launched a new kickstarter project to raise some of the remaining funds. Please pass it on! http:/kck.st/fpgp6g